After the success of Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill, Richard Curtis has nothing to prove as a writer of classic boy meets girl romantic comedies. Therefore, in order to keep himself from getting bored, in Love Actually he attempts to raise the gentle powderpuff structure of the romantic comedy to the level of an epic ensemble production worthy of Robert Altman. Amazingly this turns out to be an inspired decision and not a stuffed ego having delusions of grandeur.
The story sees an almost countless selection of tenuously connected couples struggle to find love in the run up to Christmas. Instead of getting bogged down in endless coincidences and contrivances in order give the plots more twists than Chubby Checker, Love Actually charges through the formulaic soul-searching elements of the plot we've seen a million times to focus on the set pieces. This means the film moves like an energizer bunny with a mains connection up its backside, not letting up for a second.
It is a great testament to the directorial skills of Curtis in his debut film as director that these truncated tales tug at your heartstrings. By the close you have empathised and engaged more with each individual character in 10 minutes than you would in 90 minutes with most rom-coms. This may be partly due to having so many stories that you don't know which will end happily, not something that is difficult to guess in Notting Hill for example. In fact the biggest flaws are the cliched way that the relationships feature powerful men and passive women almost without exception. There is also the slight feel of a equal opportunities committee at work with the somewhat tokenistic presence of one character each to tick the ethnic, disabled and gay boxes.
Despite this and the presence of some re-used gags from Four Weddings and Notting Hill the film is nothing less than a triumph. Bill Nighy's glorious brain-dead aging rocker, Emma Thompson's trembling tears and Keira Knightley's angelic smile help the film span the range of human emotion. This film has something for everyone who believes in love and everything for someone who believes in movie fairy tales.